In Os Guinness's recent apologetics book Fool's Talk, what role does rhetoric play? Literary scholar David Parry draws on his knowledge of classical and Christian rhetorical traditions to unpack one strand of Guinness's ideas about apologetics. To read David's other work for ESN, click here. “Do you know how you can act or speak about rhetoric so as to please God best?” (Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus)[1] The epigraph above is selected from the five pages of thought-provoking quotations that open Os … [Read more...] about Open-Handed Communication: The Rhetoric of Christian Persuasion
Erasmus
Book Review: Fool’s Talk, by Os Guinness
Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, Os Guinness. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015. Summary: Guinness argues for the recovery of the lost art of persuasion that combines good apologetic work with evangelism and is aware of the many people Christians address who are not open to their message. … [Read more...] about Book Review: Fool’s Talk, by Os Guinness
Book Review: Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, by Johan Huizinga
Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, Johan Huizinga, tr. F. Hopman. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1957 (first published in 1924). Link is to Dover Publications reprint. This book is now in the public domain and there are free versions for Kindle and other digital formats. Summary: An elegantly written biography of Desiderius Erasmus describing his life, thought and character as a scholar who hoped to awaken “good learning” and to bring about a purified Catholic church, and the tensions resulting from being caught … [Read more...] about Book Review: Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, by Johan Huizinga